


The Chosen Hero

by Virilee



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 06:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16470476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virilee/pseuds/Virilee
Summary: Athena is a Goddess, and when she needs help of human variety, she finds it. What she is not counting on, is the stubborn apathy of an exhausted college student.





	The Chosen Hero

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a piece I wrote a couple years ago for a fiction workshop. I had notions of turning it into an epic adventure, filled with comedy and sass, and as fun as that idea sounds to me, I don't think I'm ever gonna get around to it. Instead, I'm posting it here, in the hopes that any feedback on it will help me to improve the writing projects I currently have in the works. As such constructive criticism is absolutely welcomed!

It was a fairly normal girl who clattered through the front door, and immediately went upstairs. Nobody else was home, and still, she slipped into her room without a word, and with every intent of not leaving again for a solid three hours. She was not, however,  planning for the scene that greeted her when she turned forward and faced her room. Mara found herself frozen in shock and confusion.

“Um,” she eventually manages to get out. Her words seem to be the trigger for movement, because it is only then that the very not normal lady gracefully stands, with an benevolent smile gracing her lips.

“You’re glowing. _Glowing._ How are you even doing that?” Mara whispered. It was quite true, the lady was indeed glowing, rather faintly but it was noticeable enough, since the only other light source was the window. The strange lady was barefoot and without a doubt was one of the most beautiful people Mara had ever seen. She wore a dress that was pristine, floor length and white. And yet, even if she had looked like a perfectly normal person, she still would have been quite strange indeed, because, she was in the girl’s bedroom, and in no way, was a perfect stranger supposed to be sitting on the girl’s bed waiting for her.

“Hello there, Mara.” For a brief moment after the strange lady spoke, Mara entertained a slight shock at the fact that her voice sounded like it was made of ringing bells. Then she wondered at the fact that this lady knew her name, but when she came to the end of that thought, she realized what this scene sounded like.

With a shaking voice, Mara spoke. “What do you want?” She’s scared, _terrified_ , of the answer, but she know’s she has to ask, has to make sure her guess is right before she really freaks out.

“Well, Mara,” the lady responds. “My name is Athena. I suppose you might have heard of me, though I haven’t needed to get involved in human affairs for quite some time. The cold truth is, I find I need your help.” Athena. The magical lady poised in the middle of Mara’s room was _Athena_ , the greek goddess.

Mara stilled, and the room was silent. She could feel the weight of the moment, like some indescribable pressure. She could practically feel the magic radiating off of Athena, and it held her trapped for a moment. In that moment, Mara wanted nothing more than to agree, to do anything that this goddess needed of her.

Then, Mara broke herself out of of that hold, and set her jaw. With a tilt of her head, Mara made her own cold, and calculated response. “Oh, really? And why on Earth should I agree to help you?”

Athena said nothing; _could_ say nothing. Every hero she had chosen in the past had been perfectly agreeable towards their duties to their home world.

At Athena’s silence, however, Mara leveled her with a harsh glare, then dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “I’m not waiting all day for you to come up with an explanation, sweetheart. So listen. You’ve got yourself exactly sixty seconds to explain why you’re here and what it is you’re expecting me to do, starting right now.” She pressed something on her phone, and a timer started counting down, and that managed to urge the shocked goddess into responding.

“There is a -ah- threat, rising and I have need of a hero to conquer it. To put it simply, a rather unpleasant artifact was recently uncovered and the gentleman who discovered it has gone a bit- power mad.” Athena smiled, gently, and Mara smirked as the woman built herself back into the image she had first presented of an aloof goddess who would rather not be involved in this at all. “I have need of a hero to take care of threat before it becomes a more serious problem.”

At that, Mara laughed. “And you think _I’m_ the person to help out with this? Why not just deal with the problem yourself?”

“It is not our job to get involved in human affairs. The most we do is offer guidance to those who are chosen to deal with these things-”

“Chosen by who?” And now Mara shifted, leaning back against her desk, and she was crossing her arms, and Athena was starting to feel incredibly like a student being quizzed.

“By the gods of course.”

“So the gods can do no more than offer guidance, but they’re the ones who choose the heroes in the first place? Sounds to me like you could very easily choose yourself for this task.”

Athena frowned, very much not enjoying the way this human girl was speaking to her. “While I am on this Earth, I have a great many limitations, and there is very little I can actually do to affect the world.”

“Are you saying I’m stronger than you? Christ, I’m a 20 year-old human girl, and until I met you, I was pretty confident in the knowledge that magic did _not_ exist. What the hell am I supposed to do to help you?”

“You are human, you can defeat this man.” Perhaps that hadn’t been the best response, because Athena had never, in all of her existence, seen an expression that coldly harsh and judgemental before.

“You want me to kill him.” It wasn’t a question. “You think that I, a twenty-year-old girl who has never even so much as held a gun in her life, am going to be not only capable, but willing to kill this man for you.” Mara paused for a moment, but she wasn’t nearly done. “Exactly where did this precious artifact that he’s gotten his hands on come from?”

Athena would never, _ever_ admit it, but she was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable. “They were- They were created by the gods.” And okay, maybe it was completely ridiculous, but Athena was starting to understand where this girl was coming from.

“So. You want me to go against my own moral code and kill a man because he is presumably going to become a problem for my world in the future. I’ve certainly never heard anything about this problem before. And all of this is thanks to your people who either will not or cannot do anything to help other than giving me some _maybe_ helpful guidance that is probably all kinds of out of date, because you haven’t even been on this world for centuries, by your own admission.”

There was nothing else Athena could say. She felt very raw indeed, and much like a schoolgirl getting scolded for her foolish assumptions about the world. There was no response that Athena could think of, and so she said nothing.

“No, I won’t help you.” Athena had been steeling herself for Mara’s response, but she hadn’t expected this. To receive a flat out refusal- Athena had thought she was just in for a particularly unpleasant quest, guiding a hero who obviously didn’t want to be there.

“No?” Athena spoke softly, and a short temper was a very quintessential part of a god’s personality, so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising when Athena’s shock turned into an outburst. “You dare say no to me?! I am Athena, goddess of War and Wisdom, and you _shall_ bow before me or face my wrath, mortal fool.”

Mara wasn’t stupid, it was a bit worrying when Athena started yelling, and it was definitely scary, the way her voice reverberated through the room, and she seemed to grow bigger, but though this was a goddess, her expression looked remarkably like the children she babysat. If there was one thing Mara knew how to deal with, it was unruly children.

Mara walked stiffly to the door of her bedroom and held it open. “Get out.”

“What?” Athena deflated with humorous speed at Mara’s unimpressed response.

“You heard me. This is my house, and I’m not going to let someone threaten me inside of it. Get out, or I call the police. Any sane person would have done that the second they walked in and saw you. I was polite, I heard you out, and I decided that I am not willing to or capable of helping you on your quest. So, _leave._ Go find somebody else. Preferably now, _before_ I call the police. I get the feeling it would be quite hard to convince them that you actually are a goddess and not just someone having delusions.”

 

Athena had to admit to herself, as she stood outside in the waning light of the day, that the girl she had come for definitely had spirit. In all her experiences, nobody had ever gathered themselves up and bodily pushed her out of their home. The girl’s last words still rung in her ears.

“There are seven billion people on this planet; I'm sure someone else will be willing to help you.” The girl had dismissed her. And now, here she was, out an afternoon, and without a hero to take up the quest before her, and do what needed to be done. And so, with all the dignity she had left, Athena gathered herself up, squared her shoulders, and began walking away. She hadn’t made it very far when a man moved out of the shadows and fell into step beside her.

“I told you.” He murmured, grimacing at her, as she glanced over at him. He was wearing a business suit, pristine and completely black, atop the deep red

“Yes, I know. Do you really have to rub it in?” Her partner laughed, grinning and holding his hands up before them.

“I’ve told you time and again; not everyone appreciates the whole Chosen Hero spiel you use. But you know that now. So, come over to my place, I’ll have some pizza delivered, and we’ll figure out a new choice. Maybe they’ll be a bit more willing. Come on, love, my car’s just over there.”

The man pulled out a set of car keys, and the lights on a black corvette flashed. Athena followed the man silently, rolling her eyes, as he held open the passenger door for her in a mockery of gentility. Athena supposed that all was not lost; the girl was at least right in that. Of all the people in this world, there had to be someone willing to take up this task. And in the meantime, well, she’d never had pizza before...

 


End file.
